It’s not often that a quality death metal tour comes through Kansas City. It’s rare for a tour featuring one of the vast genre’s pioneers and legendary bands as headliners. And even rarer is a packed Riot Room from the very first band to the end of the show. But that’s exactly what happened on a cool Saturday night in Kansas City when Deicide rolled into town with an unholy host of quality bands with them.

Opening the show was local brutal death metal group Gornography. Gornography doesn’t really believe in adding frills and extra distractions to the music – they just assault every sense with every song and they do it extremely well. Each song is chock full to the brim of crushing riffing and precision drumming that is almost mechanical in how mind-blowing it is. Frontman Steven Babcock is one of the best guttural extreme metal vocalist I’ve ever heard – local bands and otherwise. The sound was crisp and clear and it just made everything all the better. The pummeling train of death that was the song “Lakes of Blood” ended their awesome set by leaving a lot of sore necks from headbanging.

If Gornography is a train coming straight at your face, Torn The Fuck Apart is the psychotic conductor who took it off the rails in the first place. At times, just as heavy and riff-oriented as their peers, but TTFA has more of a technical slant to their madness. Lots of tempo changes and technical playing from everyone involved – a welcome respite from most of the other bands on the bill. And, of course, any brutal metal band that makes heavy use of sampling to introduce songs is always a plus in my book. One of the Midwest’s finest bands.

The first touring band was Necronomicon from Canada. They played a refreshing brand of black metal-influenced death metal that really stood out from the other bands. Vocalist/guitarist Rob “The Witch” Tremblary had no trouble riffing and soloing while whipping his hair around in a frenzy. For just a three-piece band, their sound came out very full and very heavy – at times they channled similar bands like Behemoth and even Nile, which is no small feat for a trio. Unfortunately, this was the first show for their bass player, who was a replacement who flew out the day before from California, so they played a shortened set only lasting 20 minutes. But it might have been one of the best 20 minute sets the Riot Room has ever seen.

Recently reformed slam death metal band Disgorge brought forth possibly the most energetic crowd response not only of the show, but maybe in the history of Kansas City music venues. The crows was constantly moving and moshing, spilling over onto the stage and having stage divers and crowd surfers (if you’ve been to the Riot Room, you’ll see why this is such an extraordinary feat) and lots and lots of headbanging. Disgorge plays a style of death metal focused more on the downtuned riffing and neck-breaking breakdowns, which they made ample use of. The vocalist, who is also the vocalist in legendary brutal death metal band Cephalotripsy, was a madman on the stage, whipping from one end of the Riot Room to the other, taking every chance he could to stomp his feet and slam his head with every other crazy person in attendance. With songs like “Exhuming the Disemboweled” and “Cranial Impalement,” it might be easy to imagine what Disgorge sounds like, but their live performance needs to be seen firsthand to believe it.

The crowd didn’t let up one bit for Chicago’s Broken Hope, another recently reformed old-school death metal band. Broken Hope combines elements from straight-up death metal with some brutal/slam death metal sounds and throws in finely crafted soloing that wouldn’t be out of place in a melodic death metal song. The band didn’t waste too much time in between songs, playing 14 songs in under an hour, which kept the mosh pit going 100% of the time. Broken Hope has the old-school death metal aesthetics but with a newer sound to them that can satisfy fans both old and new. Excitement reached a fever pitch when they launched into 1991′s “Swamped In Gore,” the riff of which probably inspired countless death metal bands that came after them. A very energetic performance from a returned band that the death metal scene needs.

I’d like to take a quick second here and compliment the Riot Room on the impeccable sound throughout the whole night. Never before have such loud bands been mixed so well. Usually it’s hard to hear one guitar over the other, especially when one is performing a guitar solo, but this might have been the best mix I’ve ever heard there. They even pulled off making Necronomicon, a death metal band with only one guitar, sound just as thick as all the other bands with two guitarists. A hard thing to do, but they did it magnificently.

But, of course, that night was all about the return of the legendary Deicide. Fronted by notorious bassist/vocalist Glen Benton, Deicide was one of America’s first death metal bands from back in the late 80s and early 90s, and they were certainly one of the fastest and most precise. It’s mind-blowing, however, that a band approaching its 25th year of existence is still as precise and fast as they were on their very first album. Benton and company (which include original drummer Steve Asheim and ex-Cannibal Corpse shredder Jack Owen) opened their blistering set with 4 back to back classics, including “Dead By Dawn” and “Scars of the Crucifix” which has almost everyone in the room screaming along. They proceeded to hit a variety of albums in their long and storied career, including several cuts off their first two albums, and some of their brilliant newer material, such as “Hang In Agony Until You’re Dead” from 2011′s “To Hell With God” album. Benton assumed the role of grumpy old rocker, but all his interactions with the crowd in between songs were taken in good stride. At one point he told people to knock it off with the punching in the crowd, stating “I’m the only bully in the room tonight.” After almost an hour and a half, the band ripped through “Kill The Christian” and ended their set to a huge roar from the enthusiastic crowd. This was one for the ages, for sure.

Deicide:

Homage For Satan
Dead By Dawn
Once Upon the Cross
Scars of the Crucifix
When Satan Rules His World
Serpents of the Light
Save Your
Hang in Agony Until You’re Dead
Conviction
Trifixion
Dead but Dreaming
They Are the Children of the Underworld
Witness of Death
Desecration
Sacrificial Suicide
Lunatic of God’s Creation
Oblivious to Evil
Kill the Christian

Broken Hope:

Into the Necrosphere
Dilation and Extraction
The Docking Dead
He Was Raped
Swamped in Gore
The Dead Half
Womb of Horrors
Pitbull Grin
Gore Hog
Hobo Stew
The Flesh Mechanic
Felching Vampires
Incinerated